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Obama in Israel: 5 takeaways

AMMAN, Jordan — The White House insisted there would be no huge breakthroughs on President Barack Obama’s first trip to Israel as president — a promise Obama kept.

He made some progress in key areas — not hard to do given how little Obama accomplished in the region during his first term. But building on those steps would require the kind of sustained involvement Obama seems hesitant to do.

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Obama did seem to improve his standing significantly with the Israeli public and patch up his bruised relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That’s probably a prerequisite for progress on Mideast peace, even if there’s nothing to show for it right away.

For Obama and Netanyahu, it was definitely not love at first sight in 2009. But during the president’s three days in Israel, they finally seemed to build some rapport.

Netanyahu, who’s old enough that his first run as prime minister was when Bill Clinton was president in the 1990s, also leapt at every opportunity to pick up on Obama’s youthful charisma. When Obama stripped off his suit jacket and strode across the Tel Aviv airport tarmac in his shirtsleeves, proclaiming, “I’m a young man. I like to walk,” Netanyahu quickly stripped off his suit coat, as well. As photographers snapped away, the two men walked side by side with their jackets slung over their shoulders, looking vigorous and producing one of the iconic images of the trip.

Obama quickly struck a kind of buddy-buddy vibe with Netanyahu, noting some colored markings on the pavement and quipping, “He’s always talking to me about red lines.”

By the time of a state dinner Thursday night, Obama and Netanyahu were leaning in to each other like old friends, chatting intensely. The president even used his hand to try to shield their words from prying cameras.

During their joint appearances, Netanyahu gushed over Obama, saluting his “great success mobilizing the international community” to sanction Iran over its nuclear program. The Israeli prime minister said he would “cherish” Obama’s remarks on the historical origins of the state of Israel and said there’s more between them now than most have come to expect.

“I think that people should get to know President Obama the way I’ve gotten to know him,” Netanyahu said, suggesting a kind of intimacy entirely at odds with the first four years of their relationship.